Life flows through Honor

As I was teaching in our Sonship & Inheritance class I was impressed at how revolutionary the concept of honor is and how the Holy Spirit was personally challenging me to honor my father.  The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are perpetually in a relationship of honor.  There is no competition, jealousy, or envy within the God-head.  Since there is not an orphan spirit present, honor is the relational currency of heaven.  Honor is esteem, value, great respect, or to be in right relationship.

As we honor God and specifically His Son Jesus Christ (and His work on the cross) in our lives we begin to draw on the grace available "in Christ".  To see heaven's reality brought to earth means that we must align our thinking and way of seeing things with God's.  Thus since honor is how life flows in relationships, then we must learn the ways of God in relationships to live this out on the earth.

Honor sees the best in people by seeing them created in the image of God, despite sin, shame, wounds, fears, failures, and quirks.  Honor looks for the treasure in people and calls it out.  Specifically, if we want to walk as a son to God we must align with the spirit of sonship by walking in honor towards our parents.  Valuing and esteeming parents for some seems to flow naturally out of a right and healthy relationship but for most this is a greater challenge.

It would seem that honor is for the select few that had a functional childhood but no application to those of us that had childhoods filled with pain, disappointments, and darkness.  Yet Paul building on 2 chapters in Ephesians targeted at teaching on our new identity, 2 chapters for application of these truths in the church, and the next two chapters in the spheres of relationship that honor is be norm on earth as it is in heaven.

I was struck that I have spent many the prayer ministry sessions I have had for me in the last 10-12 years working through forgiveness of my parents as issues have been revealed.  Yet moving into a place to truly honor and value my parents the way Jesus does is revolutionary.  I believe Father is positioning me to receive even more of His life by honoring my father and mother, since this is His promise to me in Ephesians 6:2-3.

Walking in Honor,
Bret

Rest is for Sons

Holy Spirit has highlighted and given me revelation into Matthew 11:28-30 which says, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."  This beautiful invitation that Jesus gives to all who are weary from their own labors to bring salvation and to those who suffer from the burdens that this brings.

Jesus Himself as a Son took the labors necessary for salvation by being under the Father's mission and laying down His life that we would be saved.  Jesus was born under Law (Galatians 4:4) that He would labor under what was oppressing us with all it's requirements, yet He was subject only to His Father's mission by being a Son.  This introduced a whole new way to live, thus a New Covenant where we can live out of our union with Christ and His indwelling Presence rather than rules.  We now rest in obeying the prompts of the Holy Spirit and His direction, Jesus reveals the His nature in this passage by saying "I am gentle and humble in heart".  This is on contrast to the Law or our form of self-imposed religious ideals living as orphans.

Jesus took the burdens that would cause us to be heavy-laden.  He took the full burden of sin, it's working death and finally the wrath of God on sin.  The cross was the instrument to bring the full burden of our sin, it's crushing weight was put on Jesus back.  This also includes the future of our lives united to sin, it's hopelessness, bondage, and finally death.  In bearing this burden Jesus purchases the life that was stolen by sin, so now we have the Promises of God in Christ.  By Jesus taking on the burden of sin, our old identity as orphans, sickness, and condemnation we now have access to all these benefits by faith in what He has done.

As sons of God we are invited into this rest, which is based on Jesus finished work and not our own efforts.  We must look to Jesus and what the Father has done in His love for us to bring us into this wonderful place of rest.  We rest in the revelation of what has be done to purchase our present salvation from the things that we both labor under and the burdens we are weary from.  If you want to see the sermon by Charles Spurgeon on Rest that plumbs into the depths of Jesus invitation to rest, go to:  http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0969.htm.

Resting in Christ,
Bret

Whose image are you in?

Father began to highlight an area that I had only previously thought about in passing but His Spirit was breathing fresh perspective.  This area is in who's likeness we see ourselves, we maybe created in God's likeness and image but who are we looking to.  In Genesis 1:28 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit creates us in His image and likeness.  No other creature can speak intelligible words, has personality, morality, and spiritually.  We are unique and according to Psalm 8 the crowning work of all creation and born to rule and reign.  This is not some lofty theoretical idea, this is the design of the Creator.

Yet we are only 4 chapters from Genesis 1:28, in Genesis 5:3 and see, "When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth."  This is a huge transition after the Fall from children who would have looked at their parents and would be able to clearly see the image of God in them, then they would become like that image.  Now Adam, the first man God created, has a son who is in his own likeness not the image of God.  The image of God in Adam at this point in the story is hideously stained with sin, the Fall, and orphan thinking.  So Seth would look to his earthly father Adam to show him what God was like but instead of seeing the untainted image of God he would see this distorted image only to become like Adam.

I see this in everyday life as I counsel and minister to people, the judge their father as being distant and emotionally unavailable only to have a hard time connecting with their own kids and looking like the very image (dad) that they judged.  Romans 2:1-3 says in essence, we become what (the image) we judge in others.  A now mother herself judged her mother as not being the tender and nurturing mother her heart desired, only to later tell her kids it was time to make herself happy becoming unavailable to them when they needed her.  It goes on, children looking to their parents to see what God is like seeing this distorted image and then it being replicated in them.

It is only when we look to the fullness of who the Father is in the Son Jesus Christ that Scripture promises us we will be changed into the same image.  2 Corinthians 3:17-18 says, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is,there is liberty.  But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit."  You were destined to look into the face of the One who made you, then you will look like the Son and know the Father's love.

In His Image,

Bret